Clooney Calls Out Tarantino for 'Cruelty' in Comments

The fallout continues over Quentin Tarantino's public criticism of specific actors, with George Clooney the latest to criticize the director, reports the Guardian. Speaking at AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards over the weekend, Clooney went out of his way to praise Paul Dano, Owen Wilson, and Matthew Lillard—the three actors Tarantino dissed on a podcast in December. "I would be honored to work with those actors. Honored," Clooney said. He added: "I don't enjoy watching people be cruel. We are living in a time of cruelty. We don't need to be adding to it."

Tarantino has drawn fire after telling Bret Easton Ellis that There Will Be Blood would rank even higher on his list of this century's best films if not for what he called a "big, giant flaw:" Dano. He branded Dano "weak sauce" and "the weakest … actor" in SAG, and added, "I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard." The comments prompted a wave of support for Dano from former collaborators.

As for Clooney and Tarantino, the two last worked together on 1996's From Dusk Till Dawn and appear to have had a bumpy relationship since, notes Variety. Clooney noted in a 2023 GQ interview that Tarantino had recently dismissed him as "not a movie star." He recounted Tarantino as saying, "'Name me a movie since the millennium.' And I was like, 'Since the millennium?' That's kind of my whole f---ing career."